Pages To View:

Contact Us:

Share BDS Events

Why Boycott?

The state of Israel was built on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners. A majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless.

Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal, and called for effective remedies.

People of conscience in the world have historically fought the injustice of apartheid through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions. As in the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, we in the Hudson Valley support the Palestinians in their fight for justice.

The Rhinebeck CVS is loaded with l'Oreal products. This from the BDS Movement for Freedom, Justice, and Equality:
"L'Oreal Israel manufacturers a line of products using Dead Sea minerals under the name 'Natural Sea Beauty' that is exported to 22 countries. While L'Oreal exploits minerals from the Dead Sea, the region and its resources are systematically closed to the indigenous Palestinian people by Israel's military occupation and apartheid practices, which have set up a network of checkpoints, segregated roads and exclusive zones."

Thursday, May 12, 2011

In an unprecedented victory to a public campaign led by Palestinian, German and Israeli groups, the German firm Deutsche Bahn International has been pulled off an Israeli railway project by a decision of the German Federal Government. The Israeli railway line is being built between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, unlawfully crossing into occupied Palestinian territory in two areas, at a great cost to the neighboring Palestinian communities.

The international campaign was launched six months ago following an investigation by the Israeli research group “Who Profits from the Occupation” of the Coalition of Women for Peace. The “Who Profits” report (see: http://www.whoprofits.org/articlefiles/WP-A1-Train.pdf) the route of the new train line and the involvement of several European companies in its construction on occupied Palestinian land.

A letter from the German Transport Ministry was released last week, stating that "The federal government pointed out [to Deutsche Bahn] that the project of the Israeli state railway is problematic from a foreign policy point of view and potentially breaches international law." The letter added that the German operator confirmed "in writing" that there would be no further involvement of its international subsidiary in "this politically very sensitive project".

Prominent among the other European companies involved in the planning and construction of the new train line is the private Italian company Pizzarotti which handles much of the tunneling. A wide coalition of Italian organizations has appealed to the company to back out of this illegal project (see more: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/stop-train-meets-6318). The Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace has called upon other governments to follow the example of the German Government and regulate corporate involvement in international law violations in the occupied West Bank.